Transfer Processes between East and West from an Actor-Centered Perspective: Salomon Negri as Translator and Cultural Broker between the Arab World and Latin Europe in the Late Seventeenth and Early Eighteenth Centuries

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The project aims to undertake a comprehensive reconstruction of the career of the Syrian Christian Salomon Negri (Sulaymān b. Yaʿqūb al-Shāmī al-Ṣāliḥānī, also known as Sulaimān al-Aswad, c. 1665–1729), his social networks, his activities as a scholar, librarian, language teacher and interpreter, as well as his work as a translator. Negri is regarded as a representative figure for the group of Christian scholars from the Middle East (Syrians, Copts, Maronites) who played a notable role in early modern transfers of knowledge and culture between East and West as well as in processes of mediation and translation between the European Republic of Letters and the Ottoman-Arab world. With this approach, the project seeks to make a substantial contribution to the research agenda of the DFG’s Priority Programme 2130 “Cultures of Translation in the Early Modern Period”, especially section 3 on “cultural proprieties and society”. The project is situated at the intersections of three research areas: the history of cultural brokers; the history of cultural exchange between the Ottoman-Arab world and the Christian Occident; and the history of language learning, especially the acquisition and study of Oriental languages. In accordance with ethno-historical research concepts, Salomon Negri is considered as a multilingual cultural mediator who built bridges between Orient and Occident through his work as an Arabic teacher in various European cities (Paris, London, Halle, Venice, Rome, Constantinople); his bi-directional translations from Arabic into Latin and vice versa; his activities as a librarian; and his advice to western scholars. The project combines micro-historical, anthropological and philological concepts and methods; it also pays ample attention to Negri’s scholarly and religious networks.